TUNAI BCA

It was a bright and fine Monday afternoon in September 2004; outside was a view of a typical busy work day in Jakarta.  Ina Suwandi, head of the Electronic Banking Subdivision of PT Bank Central Asia Tbk. (BCA), was sitting in her well-lit yet conservative office looking at the 2004 2nd semester performance report of Tunai BCA. Tunai BCA is a banking product which lets BCA customers withdraw cash from cashiers at participating retail stores as the customers pay for their purchases using the BCA ATM card, “Paspor BCA” (Exhibit 1 shows a Paspor BCA card). She recalled the phone call earlier that morning from Stephen Liestyo, Head of Consumer Banking.; Stephen wanted an explanation from her team about the performance of Tunai BCA. The frequency of BCA customers using their ‘Paspor BCA’ ATM cards as debit cards for purchases in retail outlets (Debit BCA) from January – September 2004 was 28,150,130, in stark contrast to the usage frequency of Tunai BCA which was only 1,182,673.  Since both Tunai BCA and Debit BCA banking products were based on the Paspor BCA ATM card, Debit BCA users were a potential market for Tunai BCA.  It was very clear in Ina’s mind how Stephen presented the firm’s vision: “Someday, somehow, Tunai BCA will be booming. People will shift away from using Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to get their cash from the merchants (retailers) while shopping instead.  Look at Australia; withdrawing cash at the merchants is more popular than at ATMs.  We have to spread the idea, grow it and someday, somehow, we will harvest it.  We have to be the ‘First in Mind’, otherwise we cannot be Number 1 in the market”.  After Stephen finished his sentence, Ina realized that Tunai BCA’s success fully rested on her team’s shoulders. She needed to make Tunai BCA as successful as the other banking products offered by the bank. She had to decide what her subdivision should do to make the program successful. Reflecting back on the company’s history, Ina was aware that BCA had proved itself successful in creating a perception of a bank which offered convenience to its consumers. Tunai BCA was created to further enhance the bank’s offerings in providing convenience to BCA cardholders, merchants, and to the bank itself.